Malik Beasley is no longer the target of a federal gambling investigation, according to his attorneys Steve Haney and Mike Schachter. Haney and Schachter told ESPN’s Shams Charania that they were informed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York that Beasley was not being investigated further as part of their probe.
“Months after this investigation commenced, Malik remains uncharged and is not the target of this investigation,” Haney told ESPN. “An allegation with no charge, indictment or conviction should never have the catastrophic consequence this has caused Malik. This has literally been the opposite of the presumption of innocence.”
The investigation into Beasley regarded irregular prop betting activity on rebounding props for a game in January 2024 when Beasley was on the Bucks. A sportsbook flagged a surge in betting activity on Beasley under 2.5 rebounds — Beasley recorded six rebounds that game and those bets lost. Amid the investigation, details of Beasley having financial problems and facing lawsuits for unpaid debts emerged and many connected that to the gambling probe.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office has not released a statement on the matter, but if Beasley is indeed cleared of being a person of interest in the gambling probe, it will open the door for him to finally sign in free agency. There is a difference between being a target and being the subject of an investigation in official Department of Justice parlance, and Beasley no longer being a target, specifically, is not a guarantee that he’s no longer still a subject in the Eastern District of New York investigation and couldn’t eventually face charges.
Per the Department of Justice, Title 9.11-151:
“A ‘target’ is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant. … A ‘subject’ of an investigation is a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury’s investigation.”
Beyond that, there is the potential he could face discipline from the NBA, even outside the federal investigation if it’s found he violated league rules.
Beasley was nearing a three-year, $42 million deal with the Detroit Pistons before the news of the investigation broke, which put him in limbo and could cost him millions. That kind of deal is unlikely to be out there at this point in free agency, and his options will be limited but he would garner plenty of interest given his shooting skills. The Pistons, who made moves to effectively replace Beasley by acquiring Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson, could bring him back on a non-Bird rights deal worth up to $7.2 million annually, half of what the initial offer would be.
